EVENTS

Scratch a Republican, find ‘a racist’

I have a friend who dates women who are… to put it bluntly, they’re plain. I don’t mean plain-looking (whatever that means) – some of them have been remarkably attractive; no, these women are just the personality equivalent of stale Wonderbread dipped in lukewarm water. They have no real personality characteristics that make them stand out, and are not even interesting enough to be shy – they aren’t afraid to speak, they just don’t have anything to say. They are the “regular” flavour of Jell-O. They are the white noise at the end of a cassette tape. They are the living avatar of the colour beige.

The United States seems to be deep in the throes of bland passion with their own featureless paramour: one Mitt Romney. The man is so boring that when sex tapes of him and his wife were discovered, the MPAA rated them ‘ZZZ’. Tostitos has made its famous salsa available in ‘hot’, ‘medium’, ‘mild’, and ‘Mitt’ (where ‘Mitt’ is just a can of tomato sauce that has been lightly rubbed against an onion). Homeopaths have described him as a ’30C human’.

He’s boring, I guess, is what I’m saying.

Here’s the funny thing though: even the most boring and soporific of Republicans can always be relied on to be secretly really fucking racist:

As the Republican presidential challenger accused Barack Obama of appeasing America’s enemies in his first foreign policy speech of the US general election campaign, advisers told The Daily Telegraph that he would abandon Mr Obama’s “Left-wing” coolness towards London.

In remarks that may prompt accusations of racial insensitivity, one suggested that Mr Romney was better placed to understand the depth of ties between the two countries than Mr Obama, whose father was from Africa.

“We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special,” the adviser said of Mr Romney, adding: “The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have”.

Get it? Because the President is just too damn black to appreciate England. You serve him tea? He pours it on the ground to commemorate his fallen homies! You invite him to play cricket? He tries to slam dunk the ball! You brutally colonize his ancestral homeland? He doesn’t appreciate it! Not Mitt, though. Mitt gets it, because Mitt’s white. Whiter than the cliffs of Dover. Just don’t ask him if you can bum a fag…

Now. To be fair. It was not candidate Romney who made this boneheadedly stupid remark. It was only a member of his campaign staff, speaking to a member of the media. This presents us with two options. Either a) the Romney campaign is staffed by people who are so grossly incompetent and blisteringly idiotic that they have no clue whatsoever about how crazily racist a statement like that is, or b) the Romney campaign (who is not running for office in England) is trying to feed some under-the-table fuel to the crazily racist part of their base.

I honestly can’t decide which option is more likely, but when I read stuff like this:

“Obama is a Left-winger,” said another. “He doesn’t value the Nato alliance as much, he’s very comfortable with American decline and the traditional alliances don’t mean as much to him. He wouldn’t like singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’.”

The two advisers said Mr Romney would seek to reinstate the Churchill bust displayed in the Oval Office by George W. Bush but returned to British diplomats by Mr Obama when he took office in 2009. One said Mr Romney viewed the move as “symbolically important” while the other said it was “just for starters”, adding: “He is naturally more Atlanticist”.

My ‘coded racism’ alarms go off. “Obama’s not one of us. He’s not a real patriot. He’s not a real American. He doesn’t value American traditions. He’s not an ‘Atlanticist’*.” Whether or not the racism dripping from those statements is intentional, it definitely reveals the mindset of a party that has never ceased trying to cast this President as a dangerous foreign influence hell-bent on the destruction of white America. And Mitt Romney is their nominee.

Comments

The guy has seriously misfired. First, a lot of the British people count it a courtesy to be left alone by the US, and value democratic presidents for that very characteristic. The ‘special relationship’ mostly means that Britain is America’s plant in Europe. Second, a lot of the British people are quite as aware of Obama’s British ancestry as his African one. Third, who cares if Obama ‘likes’ us or not. He’s the president of a foreign country, not my brother-in-law. All I care about is the acceptability of his foreign policy, which whilst not perfect, is a million times better than Bush’s.

I suppose this piece of sliming has something to do with the fact that the mittens is coming to visit us. I can’t think why he should.

I avoid folks who self-identify as partisan republicans for pretty much this reason. It doesn’t usually take very long to hear the dog whistles if you listen to them. Mitt’s campaign has been more subtle than say Gingrich’s primary run was but Mitt’s campaign hasn’t had any shortage either. They seem to have even stepped up the coded language twice. Once when they bagged the nomination and again more recently with them getting new media advisers on staff.

The Prime Minister in Love Actually, played by Hugh Grant, shows how badass he is by refusing to play along with the POTUS. It’s a very genteel, very upper-crust sort of badassery, but still a substantial decision.

As an English person, I’m honestly insulted by the suggestion that a black president can’t ‘understand’ England.

In a conversation the other day, talking about nationalities, I said that I was English, and also that it doesn’t really mean a hell of a lot because England was invaded by most of Europe at some point or another. Add that to our own history of slavery and conquest, and our immigration policy, and being English means nothing more than the place I was born. It certainly has nothing to do with the colour of anyone’s skin. Anyone who thinks that is deluding themselves and showing themselves for a bigot.

Hmm, I always thought our ‘special relationship’ (it’s special!) with the UK was the cultural equivalent of trying to impress dad by outdoing him, motivated by a massive inferiority complex (hence the contradictory authoritarian and individualist aspects of ‘American culture’).

We love you Britain, please love us back! We’re so sorry for changing the spellings of words and especially sorry for dropping that sweet posh accent. We’re not sorry for abandoning the monarchy, though; heriditary rule is wack, even if it is mostly symbolic at this point.

As a Canadian, I know that whenever I hear about a “special” relationship between the PM and the US Pres., it means that Canada is getting screwed for US interests again and the PM is going to be rewarded for it once he’s out of office.

Is that just a Canadian thing or do Brits feel that way too?

As for Mitt being “naturally” more of an Atlanticist (whatever the heck that is?) these folks should look at a world map before they reference geography. Do they think the Atlantic Ocean ends at Britain or even Europe? The whole western seaboard of Africa is on the Atlantic. That’s right, Romney campaign; black people are touching the Atlantic Ocean even as I type!

a) the Romney campaign is staffed by people who are so grossly incompetent…

Is obvious considering what he said in front of the NAACP; going there was stupid and talking about rescinding Obamacare was even more stupid. As far as the Atlanticist crap, I guess they are unaware that Africa is on the Atlantic just a bit; although Kenya is on the Indian Ocean, or is it the Arabic Sea? OMG, Obama is a Arabist!!!

I also love the idea that Obama is too ‘left-wing’ to understand the UK. Only Romney is right-wing enough to understand a country that has universal health care, gun controls so strict that most police don’t even carry them, forced subscription to public television and one of the largest public transport systems in the world.

Apparently Mitten’s staffer is entirely unaware that there is such a person as a black Brit. More than one, even. Has been for ages.

*headdesk*

My brain read the word Atlanticist and immediately defined it as someone who thinks the Atlantic ocean is the best ocean ever and wants it to take over the world. I am against that, for obvious reasons, not the least of which that I’m not that great of a swimmer, get sick on boats and can’t eat shellfish. It’s dry land for me, thanks but no thanks.

No, I don’t mind your joke, mainly because I don’t understand it. There’s very little that could be said about NC that I would be able to be offended by since the state as a whole has decided to become the biggest shithole on the east coast.

Oddly enough, I just read an article about his NAACP visit. The columnist pointed out that Mittens wasn’t there for the NAACP, he was there for the white moderates that don’t like the teabag racist party line so likely won’t vote for anyone who acts like those asshats. [meta] Mittens was there for the people who weren’t there but will hear about him being there, like that means shit.

Tostitos has made its famous salsa available in ‘hot’, ‘medium’, ‘mild’, and ‘Mitt’ (where ‘Mitt’ is just a can of tomato sauce that has been lightly rubbed against an onion).

This made me LOL, because I’m actually an ex-Mormon, living in Utah, and I can’t tell you how true this statement is. Mitt particularly, of course, but there is definitely a feeling that “Bland is my favorite flavor” here.

I rather hope it’s a black man making love to his woman, because otherwise there are some statutory rape laws that are going to come into play here. A little awareness of sexist language and infantilization of women, especially black women, please.

No offense meant to Brits or Canadians, but we in the US fought two wars to avoid being British. The “special relationship” can go hang for all I care. In this year of the anniversary of the war of 1812, why is Mitt making up to the people who burned Washington, hum?

But I feel I need to point out that you sort of lost one of those wars and the Brits still let you live.

Only because they were too busy fighting the real war (the one with France) to bother with some little skirmish in the colonies. We all know that they’re planning to come back and finish the job some day…

Actually, there was a “how to invade Canada if we need to” plan in the US through at least the 1920s. Could still be one for all I know. I am fond of the Canadian contingency plan should that occur, which, if I understand it was something like: 1. Counter-invade and rip up all the roads leading to Canada we can get to. 2. Retreat north. 3. Hope the Brits save our asses. It probably works best if the invasion occurs during the winter.

I completely agree. In fact, one could even start a Terry Pratchett religion, which runs exactly counter to everything he writes about. If there was such a religion, however, I suspect there would be only two commandments:

In all likelihood, it was returned because he put a bust of MLK in his office in its place, and since it was on loan from England the proper thing to do was return it (rather than put it in the basement or something).

In 2008, the wingnuts blathered about Obama being “The One”, aka the “antichrist”. Such talk was uttered to incite assassination attempts, though thankfully they never amounted to more than talk (e.g. the want ad wishing Obama to “follow in the footsteps” of Kennedy and Lincoln, or the “let his days be few” bible quote).

Failing in 1994 (re: vans up in the basement carpark) didn’t stop Osama bin Laden from trying again in 2001. In the same way, just because the “antichrist” talk didn’t lead to assassination, it’s not going to stop the rightwingnuts from trying other inflammatory speech, such as calling Obama a traitor or foreigner…which is ironic, considering the last two republican candidates. Romney hides money on Swiss bank accounts and his father was born in Mexico. McCain gave up intelligence to the Vietcong without being tortured, and McCain was born in Panama.

Also, his mother, Ann Dunham (who never seems to get a mention from anybody at all, barring a few snide right-wing-nut comments about her marital history and general “hippiness”) was, y’know, *really* Anglo-Saxon. I mean, her last name was *Dunham*, it’s not like she was mostly-German or mostly-Italian or something.

I can’t believe there is a politician making a point of being “Anglo-Saxon.” It sounds like something that a politician would have said in the 19th century, contrasting the “Anglo-Saxon” with those dirty immigrant Slavs and Poles and Italians. It just doesn’t strike me as racist, but a racist phrase from another century. It’s not just ‘white’ it’s ANGLO SAXON.

Atlantacist? Wow. I live on the Pacific Rim, and I heard some people call this the Pacific Century. I guess the people fronting on the Atlantic feel like their Right Coast privilege is threatened? Ooh, Hawaii is so exotic and all the peeps in California and British Columbia and points in between are so nutty. Why, they don’t even attend the correct prep schools.

(My apologies to the nicer Atlantic Seaboard folks for broadbrushing with my caricature.)

Good point. It’s strange, now that you mention it, because most of the US Atlantic seaboard-at least the northern part of it-is not traditional Romney voting material. Traditionally, Republicans bad mouth the eastern seaboard as effete liberals unlike “real” Americans in the midwest and south.

DC is traditionally known as the city of northern hospitality and southern efficiency, reflecting its position as the southern end of the north and the northern end of the south. Florida probably makes the bulk of the Atlantic “southern” though.

Thanks for the link to the Black Canadians articles – those are some great reading. I’m an immigrant to Canada from the US, so I never even got the whitewashed Canadian history… just the US version where Canada doesn’t come in to it at all. I’m pretty shocked to find all of that out, as I really do see Canada as so much nicer than the US – it’s good to find out where my own blind spots are.

I am inordinately proud of that series. Yes, it’s just me reading a book and then blogging about it, but considering the fact that almost none of the contents of that book are part of mainstream conversation about Canadian history, I am still going to call it a ‘win’.

It’s actually slightly more complicated than that. If you want to watch any tv, then you need to pay the annual BBC support fee (TV license). But if you don’t watch live TV, there’s no need to have a license. The fee-collecting organisation used to have a (well-earned) bad reputation for bullying people, but these days they simply send you a letter every couple of years asking you to visit their website and type in a code if you’re still not using a TV. I can live with that, and frankly there are days when I think about giving the BBC the money even though I don’t watch any TV.

Actually, even the forced TV subscription is pretty good on balance – you get an organisation that has the budget to put out good quality stuff, with no advert breaks, which I reckon is worth paying a little extra for.

Seriously though: I think you are spot on that it’s either a case of covert-but-not racism or just stupidity. What saddens me is that it doesn’t really matter which one it is in the sense that, either way, the Republican base will still rally behind the statement.

Honestly, I treat people equally. Sometimes its hard not to feel or think certain things that I wish I didn’t.

I’m sure there’s a great many better at it than me.

Apologies to all I’ve failed.

I try to become a better person. I’ll keep trying.

I ain’t even a Republican. We don’t have ‘em here in Oz.

@ Crommunist : Thankyou. I’m learning and I’m human and, well, I appreciate what you write and the insight you give everyone. If I can ever help you with anything, just say & I’ll do whatever I can to help.